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Stress related phenomena


nicklowe5

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Hi. I'm new to the forum and will start by apologising for the length of this first post! Sorry!

I have been interested in the paranormal and suchlike since childhood and have enjoyed reading books and reports on the subject. I have always been particularly interested in the Enfield case and the "poltergeist" case in Pontefract.

From what I have read, one of the most fascinating and convincing theories in explanation of the phenomena is the idea that it feeds off or is caused by stress, anxiety or other sources of energy emanating from the individuals experiencing the events. Obvioulsy, the presence of youngsters going through puberty is a common link in a lot of these cases.

The reason I am posting here is in regard to an experience my fiancé and I had several years ago. I have thought about it off and on over the years. I am hoping that if people read this and have had something similar happen to them, they will reply as I would be very interested to hear about it, or what they think about our experience.

It happened about 12 years or so ago. I had just started going out with my current fiancé (I know, it took me 12 years to propose!) and I had separated from my previous girlfriend after several years. This separation was quite stressful as it caused conflict within my close group of friends. I was training as a teacher at the time and my parents were also going through a messy divorce. My new girlfriend's mum was being treated for cancer and generally it was a pretty rough time. Looking back, it was certainly a period of change which took it out of us.

One particular evening we had been into town to meet some of my friends and it was one of the first times they had met my new girlfriend. I was anxious about it and afterwards she and I ended up having an argument about something on the way home. It lasted all the way home and had us both in tears and voices were raised, lots of anger and frustration etc. We argued about splitting up, which neither of us wanted, but the general situation at the time seemed to point to a split as the easiest outcome. As I said before, her mum was unwell and she was having to travel to the other side of the country to visit her regularly and this, plus all the factors mentioned above were making things difficult depute both of us wanting it to work.

We had both been drinking, which certainly added to the strength of the disagreement, but neither of us were what I'd describe as drunk- I'm just pointing that out as I'm 100% certain that what we eventually experienced was nothing to do with drinking too much!

We were living in a typical late Victorian terraced house with two other tenants at the time, both of whom were away for the weekend when this happened. There was also no one occupying the next door house to the left and the right hand side led onto the alleyway to the back yard and wasn't directly connected to the next door house.

We had this huge row throughout the night and early hours of the morning, and by the end of it we were both exhausted and emotional. I remember it being quite cathartic and like we were both releasing lots of thoughts and feelings about things we may have been bottling for a while. By the end of it, as I say, we had decided we wanted to stay together and we were both completely emotionally wrung out by the situation.

Almost immediately after we had finished the rowing etc and were at the point of falling asleep exhausted, the incident occurred. All along the hallway outside the bedroom there started a series of slaps and bangs. They started quite quietly and seemed to get louder as they travelled along the outside of the bedroom wall towards the wooden door. The door itself then seemed to be kicked very hard, hard enough to make the door panels jolt sharply inwards with the impact. It was certainly very forceful and very loud. We actually saw the door move in the frame exactly as if it had been violently struck. It happened quite quickly, lasting no ore than a few seconds. As I've stated earlier there was absolutely no one in the house and no one next door. It would certainly have needed someone to be in the corridor directly outside the room to cause the same effect that we witnessed. I could only replicate the incident later by physically banging along the wall and then giving the door a hefty kick.

We were absolutely petrified and it took us quite a while to gain composure enough to take a look outside the room. I'll state again that the house was totally empty. No one could have got in as the house was locked up for the night and both housemates with keys were out of town. The house didn't have noisy water pipes or any of the other natural explanations for inexplicable sounds in old houses. I certainly felt that it was "paranormal" as it was certainly inexplicable to us. I recall it happening exactly at the moment it felt as if the anxiety and exhaustion caused by the row began to dissipate and an agreement that all was going to be ok was arrived at. Maybe this is a slant I have put on the story afterwards when recalling things I've read about poltergeist cases, but it definitely happened at the point after our stress felt to be "relieved".

Although scared at the time, I never felt the house was haunted or that any sort of entity or spirit was involved. I felt like it was a physical manifestation of the stress of the emotional energy we had expended. We lived in the house quite happily for months after the incident and it did not really trouble us after the event. We simply never mentioned it again.

Nothing like that has ever occurred to me or her before or since. I don't think we've ever really spoken about it in detail since it happened as she was freaked out by it and does not like the idea of paranormal phenomena. She won't watch scary movies or read ghost stories or anything like that as it really makes her nervous. I am considering bringing it up though to see what her recollections are.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced anything similar or has any thoughts on this? I know it's not exactly much in the grand scheme of paranormal phenomena but I'm certainly intrigued by it. Thoughts would be generously received.

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If both of you hadn't heard this I would have said it was sleep paralysis. Since you did I wonder if your arguing disturbed a spirit.

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Thanks for the response.

I've never experienced sleep paralysis before but from what I've read, I'm not sure it could be that. Aside from the fact that she had the same experience as you pointed out, it didn't feel like there was a presence or anything else menacing there as far as I remember.

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Not sure why sleep paralysis was suggested. It's been a long time, could you try asking your fiancee what she remembers? Don't make a big deal out of it and don't over-prompt. It would be interesting to hear her experience.

edit to say 'Hi' and 'welcome' :st

Edited by ouija ouija
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Hi - thanks for the welcome.

I will ask her. I'm working up to it. When I do, I'll post her recollections. :yes:

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No wonder I seem to experience varying degrees of paranormal stuff. I must be a main course to them!!! :w00t:

Well, I am not sure if I have heard things like this, but through out my reading of varying situations, sometimes things that give off energy, tends to make things more active. I am wondering, something must have been there all along, but couldn't manifest as well until it had the moula of energy to feed on, hence your 'row', probably gaving them something like a big dessert. And then later, you guys cut them off cold turkey, so I think that is why they haven't bothered you again. They maybe harmless though, I think.

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So I asked my fiancé about what happened. Funnily enough, although we've never really mentioned it since that night, she said she'd thought about it the other day! I asked her what she thought it was and she, like me, still has no real idea.

She remembers the event almost exactly as I do (remember, this was 12 years ago) but she thinks we had only been in the house a few weeks and that the two housemates I mentioned being out at the time of the occurrence hadn't actually moved in at that time and that we lived there alone. I think they had moved in, but we're both agreed that there was certainly no one in at all that night. If she's right, that makes what happened seem even more odd.

I mentioned my thoughts about it being caused by something using energy from our argument and she kind of understood where I'm coming from, but obviously was not 100% sure about it. She said that (like myself) she had never felt afraid after that night and that, if it had been caused by stress, then we've had similar stressful times since in several different houses/apartments and never experienced anything similar again. We even lived in an apartment in a converted church at one point and never experienced anything remotely like what we did in that house even though that was during a stressful time too.

When we talked about the knocks and the slam on the door, we discussed various possible causes including the latch slipping and causing a crash but we both agreed that there was no real way we can explain it in any normal way. I was pleased that what she remembered and I remembered tied in almost perfectly aside from the housemate situation I mentioned above. The only other discrepancy is that I remember her as being near to the room's window as the banging happened, while she thinks we had both climbed into bed.

Soooo, I guess we'll never be sure. I still feel that it was something to do with the row affecting something in a physical manner, but one thing's for sure - neither of us has any idea what caused the knocking and the door to buckle!

Edited by nicklowe5
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Not sure why sleep paralysis was suggested. It's been a long time, could you try asking your fiancee what she remembers? Don't make a big deal out of it and don't over-prompt. It would be interesting to hear her experience.

edit to say 'Hi' and 'welcome' :st

They said they were about to fall asleep exhausted. You can experience sleep paralysis going to sleep as well as right before you wake up. I also didn't say it was sleep paralysis.
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As a psychologist, people dealing with "stress", "anxiety", might experience a wide range of "experiences" that might have a more

psychological based explanation than a "paranormal" one. But I have seen patients who have sited some very "odd" events" that are outside the realm of what mental health therapists can explain away.

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